Sounds like your friend has an Ariens. I always heard the old ones were easy to work on and after getting one I agree. Not sure how your Deere is built, so you might just have to dive in and have a look for yourself. If you want some videos here are some to look at for other brands. I think part of why the Ariens are easy to work on was because they were designed to actually have different attachments bolted to the front. That probably made them need to make them easy to take apart and switch around.
http://www.youtube.com/user/donyboy73#g/search
Just type belt in the search box.
Another set of videos you might be interested in here.
http://www.youtube.com/user/31pockets#g/u
He has a Deere 1032 that he rebuilt and has some great videos on the process which will show you how the front comes apart. His Deere is very similar to the old Ariens. Be warned that his videos are 10+ minutes each and I think he has 11 or 12 of them, so be prepared to skip some or have a lot of time.
This message was modified Feb 4, 2011 by Shryp